Who is Nathaniel Wells?

Hidden Presence explores the extraordinary life of Nathaniel Wells, an 18th-19th century nobleman of mixed heritage, son of a wealthy Cardiff merchant & plantation owner and an enslaved woman.

The project will explore the history of his country seat, Piercefield House, Chepstow; the relationship between the sea ports of South Wales and the West Indies; and it will look at a range of issues linked to cultural heritage, identity, citizenship and what it means to be Welsh today.

Hidden Presence is a Ffotogallery project in partnership with Chepstow Museum and the University of the West of England. For more information and documentation please see
http://hiddenpresencewales.tumblr.com/.

Partners and Sponsors

Offas Mead - Borders and Environments

About the Project

Offas Mead Academy is based just over the River Wye in England. Due to a nearby barracks the children’s parents are often servicemen and women, so many of them have travelled about and attended different schools in the UK and abroad.Offas Mead Academy is based just over the River Wye in England. Due to a nearby barracks the children’s parents are often servicemen and women, so many of them have travelled about and attended different schools in the UK and abroad.

The 35 key stage 2 students worked for three days over four weeks to explore journeys, memory, boarders and belonging. They explored mapping through creating remembered journeys to and from school through drawing, and comparing them to real maps. These were then turned into Gif animations, using Photoshop, and more details were added. Based on their research they drew imagined portraits of Nathaniel, which were also turned in to animations. The students used Photosynth and 360 degree panoramas to create images of the walks to Piercefield, which they added to with the addition of drawing and collage. Finally they were played sounds of the natural environment in the Caribbean, which they were asked to listen to carefully and guess the type of sounds they could hear. They illustrated these sounds, the resulting drawings were printed as large scale posters and installed in Piercefield, with the children holding them up.